


Prickly Whiskers

by Kissa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Bottom Alec Lightwood, Boys In Love, Fluff, Good Parabatai Jace Wayland, Growing Up, Insecure Alec Lightwood, M/M, No Curse, No Secrets, Razors, Shaving, Supportive Jace Wayland, Top Jace Wayland, Young Love, first, hairs, rash, whiskers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29443806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa
Summary: Alec is not sure about the changes happening to him at a fast pace... until Jace gives his enthusiastic seal of approval.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	Prickly Whiskers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessa/gifts).



> ... who taught me the über-cute phrase pash-rash.

The day Alec noticed, his heart sank.   
  
The more signs kept showing up, the more obvious it became that he was a man now, his mistakes would be seen as “grown up mistakes” and be punished proportionally. 

Had he asked Izzy or Jace, they would have told him he was exaggerating. Getting the lightest sprinkling of fluff on his jaw did not mean he was a man. What did that even mean, anyway, since in their society, no Nephilim was too young to dodge a soldier’s destiny. But it was something his parents used to say, as if “becoming a man” was a good enough explanation for all the ways his body was getting away from under his control. 

Right now, he was scowling at himself in the mirror, running his fingers over the fuzz lining his jaw and upper lip, over and over, as though trying to wear it off via friction. Obviously, it didn’t work.   
  
Alec thought he looked ridiculous, like a semi-plucked chicken. Not enough hairs there to call it a beard, too many to ignore.   
  
He looked at the box he had brought (with permission) from his father’s grooming cabinet. Opening it, he took out the cut throat razor and held it in the light. The blade was so, so sharp, and while Alec was quite adept with swords and daggers, the razor still felt intimidating. One slip of his wrist, the slightest tremble of his hand and it would all be over.   
  
“What in the ass are you doing?” Alec heard Jace’s voice from behind him, even before Jace came into view in the mirror.   
  
Alec briefly forgot himself when he laid eyes on Jace. His parabatai was shirtless and sweaty, with his hair tousled from having just been in a sparring match. He was also smiling from ear to ear and still breathing hard.   
  
“I beat him, Alec. I beat Hodge!” He announced. He’d been unable to, so far, because of his size, but recently he’d finished a growth spurt and now his reach allowed him to be an almost equal opponent to his grown up and very experienced martial arts instructor.   
  
But Jace frowned and his eyes narrowed, looking at the sharp tool in Alec’s hand.   
  
“And again, what are you doing here?” He demanded. “Don’t tell me you were going to…”   
  
“Shave this ridiculous and embarrassing fuzz, am I not allowed to shave _my_ hair that grows on _my_ body?!” Alec replied, sounding irritated and frowning at Jace in the mirror.   
  
“But, why do you want to shave it? I can’t wait to grow *some* hair, any hair, so I don’t look like a newborn mole rat anymore!” 

“It’s ugly. And silly. Look. Patches.” Alec pointed at the places he meant with the razor, in the mirror.   
  
“I think it’s hot.” Jace said, walking up to Alec and lifting himself up to sit on the bathroom counter, near the sink. “Put that thing down for a bit? I want to see something.”   
  
Alec did what Jace asked of him, as always, and he put the razor back in its box, waiting.   
  
“Good, now lean closer.” Jace said. “Closer.”   
  
Confused, Alec did as he was told and leaned into Jace’s personal space.   
  
Jace closed his eyes and began to rub his cheek on Alec’s, a long and appreciative “mmmmmmhhhhhmmmmm” resounding in his chest. He continued to hum his delight while moving to the other side of Alec’s face, like a cat greeting a friend.   
  
He did this for quite a while, before opening his eyes and smiling at Alec while putting two fingers under his parabatai’s chin and lifting it a bit.   
  
“Your whiskers are amazing. I wouldn’t shave them if I were you. They look and feel so good. But if you must shave, please don’t start with that… machete-looking thing. Come to me and we can find something you’ll like using without risking your life every time you grab it. Promise?”   
  
“For you, Jace.” Alec said, not wanting to give Jace all the power all at once. But inside, he felt reassured because Jace loved his barely there beard, and maybe was even a little envious? Jace made no secret of the fact that he couldn’t wait to start changing into a man and be taken more seriously.   
  
Alec looked at Jace, not moving away and out of his space. Jace may have been upset with his current deal, but to Alec he looked so beautiful and pure, like a being the angels had put on Earth for his selfish joy and delight. Everything about his parabatai was light, refined and soft, no matter how much their training taxed him. His skin was smooth and unscarred, his lips were soft and plump, his mismatched eyes were big and clear and compelling (a weapon Jace had learned to use mercilessly early on) and he had a bright smile that lit up the whole Institute.   
  
Alec sighed and moved away.   
  
This was his reflex reaction to everything Jace did, said or was.   
  
_Aaaahhhh, Jace._   
  
Like some tiny angels throwing sparkles and glitter while playing harp.   
  
If anyone were to reveal to Alec that what he felt was complete love and adoration, and that most Shadowhunters did not feel the same way about their parabatai or even their spouses, he would have fallen into a deep and irreconcilable depression.   
  
Later, before dinner, he returned the cut throat razor to Robert’s cabinet, without shaving.   
  
No one commented on his baby whiskers, but Maryse did see fit to point out something about Jace.   
  
“I see you’re very popular with the girls already.” She said, stroking her own chin slightly and thus directing everyone’s attention to Jace’s cheeks, which bore the slightest pinkish shade of a rash from having rubbed against something somewhat coarse.   
  
Robert and Maryse exchanged a proud look and Maryse continued:   
  
“Excellently done, son. Keep it up the same way, just don’t get anyone pregnant… yet.”   
  
Alec felt his heart sink. As usual, he was invisible to his parents.   
  
But Jace was looking at him and smiling in a way that Alec simply couldn’t look away from, his fingers softly caressing the pink dots on his jawline.   
  
Alec’s food was lukewarm by the time he came back to his senses and realized he needed to eat, only because Jace began to scarf down his dinner first.  
  
  


* * *

Alec was getting ready for the day in Jace’s bathroom, while Jace was being lazy in bed some more after getting up first and showering.   
  
He unpacked one of the pink razors and began to shave. Jace really liked to use only the best, the kind for girls, with extra moisturizing strip and aloe, for the soothing effect.   
  
Alec had to admit, they really did a good job, leaving his cheek and jaw feeling like a baby’s butt.   
  
He returned to bed, still wearing only a towel, but now freshly shaven, only to see Jace sprawled out in an X shape on the bed, on top of the blankets, stretching his limbs like a really contented cat.   
  
Alec could never get enough of looking at Jace, especially naked as he was then. What drew his attention this time around were the angry red marks on the insides of his thighs. Something had drawn the blood to the surface, in some places even breaking the skin in a pattern of thin, short lines in clusters.   
  
Alec panicked briefly, wondering what could have done that kind of damage and for a second thinking that Jace might do that to himself.   
  
Then his mind played back the events from the previous night, lingering on the long moments Alec had spent with his head between Jace’s legs. Jace had been wild about it, seeming to be after a specific feeling and intentionally holding back from coming until he got what he was after.   
  
Alec had splashed onto the sheets beneath him like a teenager, but he didn’t feel either guilty or ashamed for it. Witnessing Jace lost to his search for the most pleasure he could get did that to him. And even though they were in their twenties now, Alec still privately thought Jace had been assembled by the angels as a special gift for him. With every day that went by, he felt more and more in love with his parabatai and boyfriend and he could feel the same intensity of emotions radiating back at him from Jace too.   
  
“Awww no, the nice whiskers are gone.” Jace pouted, looking at Alec’s smooth cheeks and jaw. “I was kind of hoping for a little something to start the day on a high note.”   
  
“Or you could fuck me instead.” Alec said, trying to keep his voice casual.   
  
That definitely worked in getting Jace’s attention. Usually, Alec preferred to fuck at night, in the dark if possible, with only diffuse light from the next room. Not because he hated his body or anything of the sort, but he felt safer under the cover of darkness and personally, he felt the poor lighting offered a more forgiving view of himself, blurring away the things that made him feel self-conscious otherwise. As for fucking at daytime, Alec felt very guilty and resentful of that usually, because in his mind, staying in bed and fucking until noon or later was an affront to everyone else who was going to work.

Jace was silent for a few moments, then asked what had changed.   
  
“You always make me feel so wanted,” Alec began, feeling a blush rise in his cheeks. “With your words, the looks you give me, your touch. It’s begun to wear down my many shields. And I don’t want to deny you or myself because of shame anymore.” 

That being said, and seeing Jace smile and nod enthusiastically in agreement, Alec shed his towel and straddled his parabatai’s hips.  
  
As Jace reached into the drawer near him on the left and fished the lube out, it occurred to him that Alec had seen the traces of what his beard had done to Jace’s inner thighs and now he felt guilty for it, so he had offered something bigger in exchange in order to appease… his punishment- and reward-oriented mind.   
  
He sighed discreetly and handed Alec the lube. One of these days he would get through to his parabatai and make him know in every fiber of his being that their love was not conditioned on how well he performed or anything at all for that matter.  
  
Jace thought fondly of Alec’s delightful whiskers and their pleasant itch on his inner thighs. The slight irritation, though unpleasant, gave him the solution he needed to the riddle of how he was going to win over those stubborn and self-diminishing thoughts which plagued his parabatai.   
  
(the end)   
  
  
  



End file.
